Welcome Home
by Sabu.d
Summary: LONG OneShot. Mirai Timeline. Bulma wishes all the Z fighters back to life using the Namekian Dragonballs. This is the first night they're all back alive. Focuses on Bulma, Trunks and Vegeta.


**Disclaimer: **I don't own DBZ.

**Random idea for a story popped up. Read.**

"Trunks. Wake up."

The stern, no-nonsense voice of his mother broke through his blissful sleep.

"I'm awake…" he mumbled. He heard her make a sound of approval, then walk out of his room. He wished he could just roll over and fall back asleep again, like normal kids could. But one) he was not normal. Two) he was almost 25, hardly a kid. And three) he didn't want to cross his mother.

He walked down the stairs, stumbling because he still wasn't fully awake. He sat at the table, watching as his mother looked for food.

"I think we had water somewhere…" he informed her.

"Thank you, Trunks. But you can't survive on water." She snapped. Trunks absently wished the androids were still alive. She had been much more amiable when she feared he could be killed any given day.

Finally, she gave up in her quest for food. Despite the fact that earth was now safe from all creations by Dr. Gero, the fact remained that there were very few people alive, and even less resources for them to live on. They were rebuilding, slowly but surely.

Bulma sat down at the table across from her son.

"Trunks, we need to talk."

Trunks, who had been in the middle of a daydream, started at the sound of her voice. It took another few seconds for what she said to register in his mind.

"Uh…what about?"

"Trunks, I'm sending you back to the past for a little while." Trunks made to interrupt, but she stopped him. "We can handle rebuilding just fine without you. You need a break, and this depression you've fallen into is worrying me."

Trunks gave an exasperated sigh. "I'm not depressed, mother. We've been through this before."

"Yes. We have. And I still know I'm right." Trunks attempted to interrupt again, only to be silenced once more. "You've stopped training, you seem like the only thing you want to do is sleep and lounge around all day, and you only help us rebuild out of duty, and probably because I made you. I can't stand to see you like this, so I'm giving you a vacation."

Trunks opened his mouth to argue, but decided against it. He really wasn't in the mood to fight with her. Maybe she was right. Before he had destroyed the androids, the two of them could carry an argument longer than Bulma and Vegeta could, yet lately he just lost the energy to do anything.

"Fine. How long are you sending me there?" He asked, sighing.

"Until your birthday" Bulma smiled at him. Trunks gaped.

"My birthday? That's not for another 6 months!"

"I know. But you really need this. Consider it an extended holiday." She said, pulling him up by the arm. "Now go get dressed. I want you in that time machine 5 minutes ago!" She chuckled at her own little pun, and left him to stare.

Trunks just shook his head, and went to prepare himself.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Bulma smiled to herself. Everything had worked out just as she planned. Everyone had been wished back to life, and, thanks to a small side wish, all the Z-fighters were told to meet up at capsule corps. Trunks was due back soon, it being his birthday. The earth had been completely restored, and things were finally looking up.

She anxiously paced around the living room, waiting for her long deceased friends to get there, and glancing every so often at Chi Chi, her partner in crime who accompanied her to Namek.

They heard a knock at the door. They smiled to each other, then raced to the front of the house. The opened the door, and were greeted by the faces of the friends and family.

"Hi." Bulma said, smiling.

After a few moments silence, Krillin decided to be brave. "Hi."

Bulma rolled her eyes. Her and Chi Chi walked out of the doorway, and welcomed everyone in. After doing a quick head count, and making sure everyone was there, they were lead to the newly restored living room. Everyone sat on the couch, aside from: Bulma, who stood in front of everyone, ready to inform them on what was going on, Chi Chi, who was sitting on the arm of the couch beside Gohan, and Vegeta and Piccolo, who had their usual spots in the corners of the room.

"So. I'm sure you all have a lot of questions, so I'll cover the big ones first." Bulma said, not giving any time for anyone to interrupt.  
"One: You are all alive again because Chi Chi and I wished for it on the Namekian Dragonballs.  
Two: With the exception of Gohan, it's been roughly 22 years since you all died. In our wishes, we made it so that you would have aged. Not to be mean or anything, but really, me and Chi didn't want to feel uncomfortable around you guys being so much younger than us." Bulma said, in her business voice. "Now, any questions?" It was quite obvious that she was the proud owner of a multi-million dollar company.

"Uh yeah." Krillin again was the one to speak. "What happened to the androids?"

Bulma blinked. She had completely forgotten about them. 'Out of sight, out of mind' seemed to apply here.

"Gees! What do'u think? I'd wish you back just to have you all get killed again? They're dead! Gone! Destroyed!" Bulma informed them, making hand motions to add emphasis.

"Are you sure?" Tien asked, always the skeptic. "I mean, they could have just feigned dying to get away."

Bulma sighed. "First of all, that isn't their style, as I thought you'd remember. And second, it's pretty hard to feign being turned to dust."

"B-but…who?" Ah, Yamcha, always nervous when it came to people who were or could be stronger than him.

Bulma winked at him. "You'll see. He should be home soon."

Gohan stared up at her. "Was it…" He trailed off, knowing that Bulma probably wanted it to be a surprise. Bulma flashed him a smirk, before arrogantly replying:

"Who else?"

A raspy voice interrupted the look of understanding and pride shared between Bulma and Gohan.

"Wait a minute…" Vegeta muttered, stepping out of his respective corner. "Do you mean to say that you went to Namek, alone?" He glowered at her. Bulma glared back.

"Yes. What of it?" A vein popped on Vegeta's forehead.

"ARE YOU INSANE??!!" He yelled, scaring everyone in the room, aside from Bulma, of course. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?? Do you have any idea what could have happened to you?? You could have been killed! Or worse!"

"Gee Vegeta. I didn't know you cared!" Bulma snapped at him. "And anyway, I wasn't alone. I had Chi Chi with me." She said, like this made all the difference. Vegeta just shook his head, and backed away, obviously trying to stop himself from yelling more. Before anymore talking could take place, the sound of a door opening alerted everyone to another presence.

"Mom! I'm home!" The person called, earning a smile from Bulma, a grin from Gohan, and a gasp from, you guessed it, Vegeta.

"In the living room!" Bulma called. They could hear the sound of shuffling and movement while the boy answered.

"By the way, I will never doubt you again! Next time you say you don't need my help rebuilding, I will believe you." He called. He walked into the living room, stifling a gasp when he saw the would-be dead Z-fighters staring up at him. Bulma chuckled.

"Something wrong?" Trunks only shook his head.

"No, nothing. Just a really bad case of déjà-vu." Everyone blinked, not understanding what he meant. "…So…um…" Trunks started, "How exactly are they here?" Bulma chuckled again.

"They're here thanks to the Namek Dragonballs." Trunks gave an 'ah' of understanding. After a moment, however, his eyes flashed.

"Wait a moment…Do you mean you went to Namek?" He asked. Bulma answered "Of course" lightheartedly, not expecting his reaction.

"ARE YOU INSANE??!!" Everyone in the room had to give a side-glance to Vegeta to insure he wasn't coaching the boy on. "Do you have any idea what could have happened to you? You could have been attacked, or killed, or anything! And that's just in the trip to Namek! The planet itself could have been under attack or hostile!" Trunks yelled at her. Bulma sighed.

"Oh, they're Nameks. They aren't hostile." Trunks raised an eyebrow. "Piccolo doesn't count." She added. "Plus, I had Chi Chi with me." Again, she said it as if it made everything ok. Trunks then rounded on Chi Chi.

"YOU WENT ALONG WITH THIS INSANITY??" He fumed, before calming down. "What happened to the scary, psycho, overprotective Chi Chi I used to know?" He asked. Chi Chi chuckled.

"Oh, she's still there Trunks. She just let scary, psycho, adventurous Chi Chi take over for a while."

"Trunks, stop being so nuts about this." Bulma cut in, half yelling. "I was able to live quite safely before you were born, and I can certainly remain safe now." Her tone raised, so, being the nice host that she is, she left the room to not lose her temper in front of her guests. Trunks followed her, also half yelling.

"Yes, but you never did something as stupid as going to random planets alone with little to no protection!"

"We had weapons!"

"What? Chi Chi's frying pan??"

Their tones had raised so much that, despite them being far away from the living room, everyone could still hear the argument.

"It wasn't a far trip to Namek! We knew what we were doing, and it's not like I've never been in space before!"

"Yeah, and we all remember what happened that time!"

Bulma seemed to ignore this comment.

"And the Nameks aren't hostile Trunks! They know me! They like me!"

"And how do you know that?"

"They lived in my house for a short period of time, Trunks!"

"That doesn't necessarily mean they like you." Bulma opened her mouth to rebuke, but Trunks continued talking. "Case in point: Dad."

Much to everyone's surprise, Vegeta gave a small snort of laughter at this.

The two made their way back to the living room, still shouting at each other.

"Are you upset that I wished everyone back?" Bulma yelled, going on the offensive.

"No! I'm upset that you went there by yourself with little-to-no protection and didn't even ask me! Hell, telling me would have been nice!"

"You aren't my father, Trunks!"

"No, I'm your son! And if it weren't for me, you'd be dead! Along with the entire freaking planet!"

"If it weren't for _me_, you wouldn't have even been born!"

"In which case, YOU'D STILL BE DEAD RIGHT NOW!"

Chi Chi struck up a conversation with Gohan, obviously used to this type of shouting match. Everyone else just stared in wonder, and even a bit of amusement.

Finally, the two returned to reality, and remembered the people in the room.

"Oh. Sorry!" Bulma said brightly, sitting down in a comfy chair across from the couch. Trunks sat on the armrest beside her.

"What the hell was that about??" Yamcha asked. "Is that _normal_ for you two?"

Trunks answered. "After everyone died, Mom ran out of people to fight with. So she turned on ME! Her only son!"

"Oh please!" Bulma rolled her eyes. "I started ONE little fight, and you took to it like a fish to water! But anyway, that isn't the point. You are all probably wondering what has happened since you died. Gohan, Chi Chi and I can tell you everything we know, up until Trunks' little adventure. Then he'll take over."

Trunks stood up. "I really don't want to hear this. I'm gonna go get changed." He said, walking out of the room.

"Oh!" Bulma called after him. "We have food in the kitchen!"

Trunks stopped in his tracks. "You're kidding!" The sounds of footsteps to the kitchen, followed by joyous cries of 'MILK! BREAD! MEAT!!' and other various foods were heard. This left the people in the room wondering: what the hell had the demi-Saiyan been living on??

Gohan started telling everyone what happened after they died. About how he trained Trunks, and how he died. Unseen to anyone but him, Gohan received a small nod of approval from Vegeta when he said he knocked Trunks out to save him. After he finished, Gohan turned to Bulma.

"When did he finally achieve Super Saiyan?" He asked, knowing that he had to have to beat the androids. Bulma looked sad.

"When he found your body."

Gohan frowned. "I hadn't meant for him to see that…" Bulma shook her head.

"What's done is done. Is doesn't matter now. And anyway, it was probably better that he did. Who knows how long it would have taken him to become a Super Saiyan if not?"

Bulma and Chi Chi picked up the story from there. Of course, everyone raised a skeptical eyebrow when Bulma spoke of Time-Travel, and Yamcha even had the gull to say "Man, the loss of all of us must have really fried your brains!"

"Yeah, that's what I thought too." Trunks had responded, walking into the room at that moment. He sat down and listened to the rest of their story.

Finally, it was his turn.

Of course, Trunks' version was not as detailed as it could as been. He really spared everyone the specifics and just told the general story. One thing Bulma noticed was that Trunks seemed to leave out every little bit of interaction he had with his father. She also rolled her eyes when he skipped over that little bit with him dying. Trunks could be just as prideful and arrogant as Vegeta when he wanted to be, and that included not telling others about the times he failed.

After hearing about Goku's sacrifice in the past, everyone started to talk about Goku and how they met and everything.

Finally, after a long night of talking, explaining, and reminiscing, it got late and people wanted to go back home…somewhere most of them hadn't been in decades.

"Bye Bulma!" "See ya!" "It's nice to be alive again!" various Z Fighters called, leaving the complex and heading home. After a short while, only Bulma, Trunks and Vegeta were left.

Vegeta didn't know what to do. He and Bulma hadn't been on the best of terms when he died. Was he still allowed to stay at Capsule Corps.?

Sensing the turmoil between his parents, Trunks quietly left the room. Bulma took a deep breath.

"There's…um…There's a ship ready for you. You can leave whenever you want."

Vegeta's face showed utter confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Y-you only promised to stay here until Trunks was 18…he's 24 now. I assumed you would be leaving…" She mumbled. Vegeta shook his head.

"If I'm not mistaken, that wasn't the promise."

FLASHBACK:

"_Damn it Vegeta! You are going to be a father and you want to just up and leave??"_

"_Fine! If it means that much to you, I'll stay, okay? But only until he's 18!"_

_Bulma gave a sigh. "Thank you. But…but you have to promise."_

"_I promise."_

"_WHAT do you promise, Vegeta! I need to hear it all in your words!"_

"_FINE! I promise that I will stay here with you and the child for 18 years! Happy?"_

"_Yes. Thank you."_

END FLASHBACK

Vegeta smirked. "I believe that I haven't even been here with you and the boy for a year yet, have I?"

Bulma's face broke out into a smile. She ran to him and gave him a crushing hug. And he…he held her back.

"You've changed." She mumbled into his shoulder.

"I know. 22 years of literal hell can do that to a person."

She giggled. "It's nice to have you back."

"It's nice to BE back." He admitted. He glanced in Trunks' general direction. "So…the kid went back in time…?"

"Yeah."

"Interesting…that he didn't mention me, or the past me, rather, once."

"He just doesn't like talking about it." Bulma waved him off.

"In fact," Vegeta continued, "He hardly glanced in my direction all night."

Bulma sighed. "The truth is, I think he's nervous around you. In the past, you and him didn't exactly get along all that well until the very end. It took Trunks a lot of work to gain your respect. And I mean _a lot_. He left a little part out of his story- the part where he died."

Vegeta gaped at her momentarily. "He…died? 'He', as in Trunks?"

Bulma nodded sadly. "Yes, Vegeta. Trunks died. That's what it took for you to see how much he meant to you. It's only natural that he's afraid of that happening again. He tried so hard with you in the past, and now it's like he has to start all over again."

Vegeta grunted lightly. "I'll talk to him later…but first…" He said, pulling Bulma to him. "We have catching up to do."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Trunks stood in front of the sink, washing the dished that had been used. He was usually up late, so he didn't care much about the fact that it was well past his 'bedtime'. He could tell that his mother had already fallen asleep. As for his father, he really didn't know where he was.

He pulled a cup from the pile of dirty dishes, scrubbing at it.

"The good thing about when we had no food was that we didn't have to do dishes…" He mumbled absently. "But then again, no dishes to do equals androids terrorizing the earth." He pulled an extremely dirty dish with the remnants of various food still stuck to it. He blinked. "I think I preferred the androids…"

Finally getting fed up of trying to get all the caked on food off the one plate, Trunks threw it across the room and blasted it into oblivion.

He heard a soft 'tutting' sound behind him. "What a waste of a good plate."

Trunks whipped around to find Vegeta standing right behind him. "Oh. Hi." He said tentatively. "I didn't see you there."

Vegeta chuckled. "I didn't expect you to." He sat down at the table, looking expectantly at Trunks. Trunks glanced at the pile of dishes he still had to clean, and resolved that having the inevitable, uncomfortable talk with his father was probably much less work than doing the dishes. He sat at the chair directly across from Vegeta, shifting a little under his father's gaze.

Vegeta decided to jump right into it. "Trunks, I'm not the same person you encountered in the past."

Trunks gave a start. He hadn't spoken about the past Vegeta at all during his story. "How…" He started, only to have Vegeta cut him off.

"Your mother, but it isn't important 'how' I know a bit of what happened in the past, or how I know a bit of what you're feeling right now. The point is for you to know that I'm not him."

Trunks smiled. "You're right. You aren't him. He would have never said something like that."

Vegeta smiled back. "I want to hear the full story. Not the half-assed version you told those idiots. I want to know every detail. And don't even try to skip over parts where you aren't exactly at your best, your mother already told me about those."

Trunks shifted again in his seat. "Okay." He agreed. "But you aren't going to like it all."

Over an hour later, Vegeta was staring at Trunks, a mixture of disbelief, self-loathing and pain apparent on his face.

"I did ALL that?" he half asked, half hissed. "Fuck! First, I nearly let you die! Then I ATTACK you when you're the only person who actually sees some sense in NOT letting Cell gain unimaginable power! THEN I ACTUALLY LET YOU DIE?!?"

Trunks shifter yet AGAIN. "Yeah, pretty much…if it makes you feel better, right before I left, you pulled me aside and apologized, sort of."

Vegeta raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

FLASHBACK

"_Ow!" Trunks was pulling into a room roughly by his collar. "Oh, father…" he trailed of, seeing Vegeta as the person who grabbed him._

"_Listen closely because I'm only going to say this once!" Vegeta snapped at the boy. "Perhaps if I hadn't let Cell achieve 'perfection', you wouldn't have died." He said quickly before stalking out of the room. Trunks stared after him._

"_Was that supposed to be an apology? Or was he just saying something I, and everyone else, already knew?" Trunks shook his head, deciding that he didn't want to try to figure out his father's strange brain patterns._

END FLASHBACK

Vegeta chuckled lightly. "That sounds like one of my 'apologies'. Yes, he did mean he was sorry that his actions resulted in your untimely demise…and while we're on the topic of apologies, I'm sorry I wasn't here for you growing up."

Trunsk shook his head, slightly ignoring that Vegeta had flat out said 'I'm sorry'. "No, Dad! It wasn't your fault! You didn't exactly have a choice."

Vegeta sighed. "Yes, I did Trunks. I wasn't killed in the initial attack. I already knew the limits, or lack there of, of their strength, and yet I still went to fight them. I could have stayed with you and your mother, bided my time until I was ready to face them."

Trunks shook his head again. "No you couldn't have. That isn't your style. And anyway, if you had done that, would we be having this conversation right now?? I doubt it. Instead, you'd be in the GR completely ignoring my existence like you did in the past. Things worked out the way they did, so why decide to change it?"

Vegeta smirked. "This coming from the person who went back in time?"

Trunks blushed. "Well, maybe SOME things deserve to be changed."

"True." Vegeta agreed, still smirking. He then returned to a somber look. "Trunks, I'm sure I didn't tell you in the past, but I'm proud of you. Hell, I've just HEARD about your achievements and I'm proud; I wasn't even there to see them."

Trunks blushed deeper. "Thanks Dad…I- I'm proud of you too. I'll admit, when I first went to the past, I was kinda…ashamed of you, but by the time I left your proved you had the capability to change, and now that I'm talking to you, my REAL father, I know that you can, because you DID."

Vegeta smiled. "Thanks Trunks." He glanced at the clock. "You should be getting to bed. I want to see just how strong Super Saiyan 2 is tomorrow morning."

Trunks laughed. "Okay. But I get grouchy when I'm awakened too early, and grouchy Super Saiyan 2 is a force to be reckoned with."

Vegeta chuckled. "Of course. Hell, your mother when grouchy could send the strongest of men fleeing the planet."

Sharing a laugh at Bulma's expense, both men made their way to their bedrooms.

The three slept peacefully that night, ready to face their lives together, for the first time, as a family.

**&&&&&&&&&&&&&&**

**OMFG!! IT'S FINALLY EFFING DONE!! I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER WHEN I FIRST STARTED WRITING THIS!!!! sigh Oh well, I hope you enjoyed.**


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